Easton judge defends life term in youth murder case

EASTON, Pa. >> An eastern Pennsylvania judge is defending his decision to impose a life term on a defendant convicted of having killed another teenager when he was 14 years old.

Twenty-three-year-old Qu’eed Batts was sentenced in Northampton County to life in prison without possibility of parole in the 2006 slaying of 16-year-old Clarence Edwards and the wounding of another teenager in Easton. He said he acted on the orders of a gang leader.

Batts was re-sentenced after the U.S Supreme Court banned mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles. Defense attorney Phil Lauer said Batts should face no more than 20 to 40 years.

The (Easton) Express-Times (http://bit.ly/1tGcqvY ) reports that Judge Michael Koury said Batts committed a “calculated, callous and cold-blooded murder” and a life sentence without parole was “not disproportionate.”